IRS looking at real estate deeds to collect gift tax: San Francisco tax lawyer Robert Wood

The seamless flow of information between local, state and federal governments is unsettling, especially since it often means tax bills from one or the other.  Now, there’s a new fear: Local property transfers show up in county recorder or property tax offices, and the IRS is mining them for gift tax compliance.  See IRS Scrutinizes Gifts of Real Estate.

Land-transfer records help the IRS catch family gifts of real estate on which gift tax wasn’t paid.  You may think gifts are never caught, and that the gift tax is the most notoriously uncollected tax.  The latter is true, but that’s changing.

http://blogs.forbes.com/robertwood/2011/06/04/irs-mines-real-estate-deeds-to-collect-gift-tax/